Difference between NTSC and PAL
Main difference
NTSC stands for National Television System Committee. It is a color coding system that is responsible for configuring the visual quality and graphics of the content displayed on the television. It is usually for analog television. PAL stands for Phase Alternation by Line. All over the world these two systems are used to make visual content visible and the only difference is that two systems are located in different areas around the world. The basic difference between both systems is their bandwidth, frames per second, and aspect ratio.
Comparison chart
| NTSC | COMRADE | |
| It represents | Committee of the National Television System | Phase alternation per line |
| sound carrier | 4.5MHz | 5.5MHz |
| Broadband | 6MHz | 7 to 8MHz |
| video bandwidth | 4.2MHz | 5.0MHz |
| vertical frequency | 60Hz | 50Hz |
| horizontal frequency | 15.734kHz | 15.625kHz |
| Color subcarrier frequency | 3.579545MHz | 4.422618MHz |
| Lines / Field | 525/60 | 625/50 |
| Color correction | Handbook | Automatic |
| Used in | United States and Japan. | UK, Australia and Sweden. |
What is NTSC?
NTSC stands for National Television System Committee; it is a system that involves the quality of the visual content seen on TV. This system is applicable with analog TVs and digital TVs. It is distributed by region and covers a wide geographical area. The first NTSC-based system was developed in 1941, which was primarily for analog black-and-white televisions and did not support color visual content. The digital television coverage using this particular system includes the entirety of North America and South America, along with Burma, Japan, Taiwan, the Pacific Islands, and South Korea. This system is also used in the Philippines, but only for analog television sets.
What is PAL?
PAL stands for Phase Alternation by Line. It is another widely used system that is responsible for the quality of visual content delivered on televisions. PAL is present in different areas and covers the rest of the areas that do not involve NTSC. In addition, the PAL system is more facilitated and based on modern technology compared to NTSC. The aspect ratio in PAL systems is 720X526 and the delivery of the frames is 25 fps. NTSC used manual color correction, while PAL, unlike NTSC, has automatic color correction options. PAL is more commonly used in countries like Australia, UK, Asia, and many European countries, like Sweden, Denmark, etc. The first PAL system was initially developed in Western Europe in 1950 and was proposed to some countries for testing purposes.
NTSC vs. PAL
- NTSC stands for National Television System Committee.
- PAL stands for Phase Alternation by Line.
- NTSC is used in North America, South America, the US, Japan, Taiwan, the Philippines, and South Korea,
- PAL is used in Australia, the United Kingdom, Asia, and several European countries such as Sweden, Belgium,
- NTSC has a manual system for color correction.
- PAL has the automatic color correction system.
- NTSC has a higher delivery rate than PAL, that is, 30 fps as 25 fps of PAL.
- PAL has a higher aspect ratio of 720 × 576 than NTSC’s 720 × 480.
- PAL system uses the latest technology compared to NTSC.
- The NTSC system can be decoded with a pair of NTSC decoders.